Menu

Post navigation

Another Christmas, Another Soap (or Candle)

Added to my continuously growing collection of soap this year is “Mistletoe Kiss” that comes in a fancy pump bottle given by a friend when I came over for Christmas. The gift bag came with a cinnamon scented candle. Last year, she gave me soap and lotion. I can predict what’s for next year’s, lotion and candle. unless there’s a flaw in my algorithm, I can pretty much tell that’s what I’m going to receive next year.

No! I’m not being an ungrateful prick. I just thought it was funny.

I opened the present in front of my very thoughtful friend, I mindlessly let out this chuckle. Her response was a question, “why?” to which I answered, “nothing.” But the moment I saw that green nozzle sticking out of the gift tissue, I knew! And it reminded me of the running joke about generic holiday presents, the usual suspects; candle, lotion, soap, coffee mugs. I didn’t bother explaining the humor to her because we always somehow get lost in translation and I blame it on her being Jamaican.

And again, I’m not being an ungrateful prick! And who am I to talk. I didn’t even get her any present this year. That’s probably why my present hasn’t upgraded to a set of flannel pajamas or a gift card to Home Depot yet. I’m really not complaining.

I’m actually no better. At least she bought her present. I, however managed to do a holiday ritual that is frowned upon. Easily justifiable but still not widely accepted. I re-gifted! Not only that! It wasn’t even an actual Christmas gift to begin with. My mom came over a couple of weekends ago to watch my daughter’s dance recital and she brought me these two huge boxes of Ferrero Rocher. A week later we were drawing names for secret santa at work. Being the busy mom that I am, the Christmas party date crept up on me and before you know it…you get the picture? So I shamelessly recycled a non-gift item and gave it to a non-suspecting individual. I tried to put a little of my Janis twist to it and even the wrapping paper is a repurposed shopping bag from a shoe store. All other accoutrement are trivial items lying around the house. For shame! It just never stops!

And here’s the other box that Una and I shared one morning, before heading out to school. Bad mom!

I hope everyone got what they wanted and that no one gets picked by me for secret santa next year.🙂